WARSAW, August 20. /TASS/. A large group of migrants is roaming the Polish-Belarussian border, guarded by the two countries’ law enforcers, for the twelfth day. As a TASS correspondent reports from the scene, about 30 people are stranded near the community of Usnarz-Gorny, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in the east of the country.

The refugees from Afghanistan tried to illegally cross the border only to be stopped by border guards. The Polish authorities argue that the migrants are on the territory of Belarus. On one side they are guarded by armed Belarusian law-enforcers, who prevent their return to Belarus. On the other side, Polish border guards and the army keep them out of Poland.

"The situation has not changed. As before, up to 30 people are on the Belarussian side of the border," the press-secretary of the Podlaska border guard office, Katarzyna Zdanowicz told TASS.

"The Polish border guard service is doing its job," she added, when asked if Poland had any plans for letting the migrants in.

Zdanowicz said Poland had asked Belarus to take part in resolving the problem. After that, nearly all women and children were taken out of the temporary refugee camp.

The migrants - mostly young men - have set up one tent. Most spend the nights in sleeping bags on the ground. Some politicians and human rights activists have visited the site. Food and water is being brought to the migrants.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news briefing on Thursday Poland had no intention of accommodating illegal migrants roaming the border on the Belarusian side. He added that such a decision would entail a migration crisis involving tens of thousands.

Situation on the border

Earlier, Poland and Lithuania urged the European Union to take tougher measures against Belarus over the migration crisis in the region allegedly provoked by Minsk. Since the beginning of this year more than 4,000 illegal migrants have been detained on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, which is 50 times more than in the whole of 2020.

According to the Polish Interior Ministry, there have been 2,100 illegal attempts to enter the country since the beginning of August. The border guards prevented 1,342 attempts at crossing the border, and 758 foreign nationals were detained and sent to closed centers.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that his country had served as a barrier in the way of illegal migrants to the neighboring country, but in the light of political pressure from the West Minsk might think again about maintaining this policy.